New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1887-12-24
PRINTING ABUSES STOPPED.
ANEW AND GOOD RULE OF TIE HOUSE
m MORE BILLS TO BE PRINTED FOR THE fArh"
MIIIs-LONG-NEKDLD LEGISLATION.
Inv rrrroR,rn To TEE TRIBUNE.i

Inv TELEGRAPH TEE TRIBCNki
u.su,xcroS Dec. a3-Thc new rule OF the House
~h,cb providcs for the printing OF oiiy ooo '"I1cs
80 rbIc bills and 100 copies of private bills Will tave
A.. covcrnmcnt hundIcds of dollars, and Is ono
that sbou,d have Lecn adopted long ago FOR many
vears the practice has been 10 print 10oo copies oi
avery lii introduced into either House OF congress,
ond the annual number of bills introduced reached tho
enormous aggregate Of from 10 900 20 11oO0, ece"d
Ing as Il Is q long or short session Each tenator
and REPRESENTATIVE has a copy Of every bill printed
n,aced mon file under his desk by the pages every
morning and this file IS kept constantly at hand cor
reference Zach committee 20 which bill IS referred
receives a number of coI.cs Tor the use 0f The NOM
bcrs In the committee rOOm and they are there 'ncu
In patent binders for reference; this aosorbs about
500 copies and the remainder of the 1900 are usually
sold for waste paper at the close Of the session IN
the House and Senate document rooms IONS oI uSc-
less bills have been piled up every sossio occupying
space that IS needed for other purposes ana requiring
the attention of several clerks 10 I0Oh aher' " INC
close of every session those looms have been toahc
out and the paper sold 10 Tie !uhhsholS 10 pe
sent hack to the Dapcr mills The receipts rom the
sale of waste paper I'm either house OF congress
amount annually to several thousand dollars iut
of course. that does not represent more than very
small proportion of the original cost OF The maieHa
purchased by the Government Printing Office and The
labor of COMPOSING ard press work made necessary.
About two-th.rds Of the bills introduced at every
session of Congress oldjmcls. Some OF thcm
have been printed dozen times and Will continue he
be printed a dozen times moro before they are put
uron the statute books or are abandoned by the nien
who advocated them. The average humber of bills
passed during each Congress IS about per cent Oh
those introduced and that includes all the pension
bills that come in at every session The great pro
portion of all the bills introduced for the ay nenI
of claims that have been pending Tor many years and
the cost of printing and lcprnting these amounts To
enough to Pay for great portion of the Just debts
of the Government that come To Congress In this iolI
LAST year Mr. Springer introduced bill TO refer all
cation. There al that zine 1,oll bills pending
before the Committee On Claims alone lcarly all 81
them iuiring the Investigation OF disputed :acis
task for VIII ch judicial tribunals are specially adapted
but from which congressman always khfInh ihcy
neither the time the disposition to examine
evidence Investigate the merits OF the 'aim> ana
&he result has been that honest claimants have been
denied justice. while dishonest ones have tucceedcd
IN getting their bills through Congress by persistent
efforts and political influence. Many of these claims
have been before Congress for quarter of century
and some now being prosecuted by the children
and even the grand children OF the original claim
ants
A certain bill that might bc mentioned has passed
one house Of Congress twelve times. but has never
been able TO reach the President Mr.. springer .st
mated that the cost of printing these private blls
Cor the last twenty five years has been over 100000
and during the last Congress alone the expense was
end dies. leaving his claim against the Government
legacy 10 Congress. and sub ecs those Interested
tn IT 10 annual expense which IS oien creator than
the sum asked for.